“It’s always sad and shocking when somebody so young dies, but one of the things that made it even more upsetting is that so many of us who knew and loved him were actively involved in trying to get him better,” the 47-year-old producer told THR.

He added, “When you’re faced with something so sad and so shocking, what do you do? Do we cancel the show? Do we start shooting in January? What do we do? Ultimately, we decided the best thing for everyone is to get back to work and be around people who knew him and loved him so that everyone can grieve together.”

“I’ve never met any 26-year-old person stronger than Lea. She’s really been the leader in this situation, which is very unfair in a weird way because this show has always been so complicated about characters merging into personal lives, merging into public identity, so it’s just all [bleeping] rough. It’s just rough and it sucks and there’s no right way to do it, but I just wanted people to know that there was nothing done without a lot of thought from a corporate level to a personal level, but ultimately, everyone involved made the decision, ‘OK, what does Lea want to do, what would Lea feel comfortable doing?’ This is what she wants to do,” Ryan told E! about Cory‘s girlfriend Lea Michele, who is one of the main leads in the show.

Ryan revealed that the first two episodes of the season have been written and are a two part Beatles tribute. With some slight modifications, the episodes will be keep intact so the writers can spend time finding a way to write Cory‘s death into the show for episode three. He has said Lea will be an integral part in figuring out the storyline and they will make sure she blesses each decision.